Increasingly in today's society, a need exists for individuals to “stay in touch,” whether it is with business contacts, co-workers, friends, or family members. Primary avenues for individuals to stay in touch are the telecommunications networks, both wireline and wireless. However, if an individual is not sufficiently proximate to their telecommunication device, the individual cannot answer an incoming call before it stops ringing, in which case the call often goes unanswered. To prevent missing calls, individuals may subscribe to a so-called “simultaneous ring” telephone service. According to the typical simultaneous ring service, when a called party receives an incoming call directed to a directory number associated with the called party, telecommunications units associated with the directory number ring simultaneously, allowing the called party to answer the most accessible phone. For example, a person may have the simultaneous ring service established for her home telephone, such that whenever a calling party calls her at home, not only does her home telephone ring, but her wireless telephone also rings.
However, if none of the telecommunications units simultaneously rung is answered, or if all of the telecommunications units are busy, then the incoming call is forwarded to a network-based voice mail system shared by the telecommunications units. Unlike conventional telephone answering machines which allow those in close proximity of the answering machine to listen to incoming messages as they are being recorded on the answering machine, calls forwarded to a network-based voice mail system are routed directly to the voice mail system, without allowing any monitoring or screening of the incoming message as the message is being saved at the voice mail system. Therefore, users of the telecommunications units simultaneously rung must wait until the message has been recorded by the calling party and then call into the voice mail system to retrieve the message.